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Topic: Newbee introduction (Read 35552 times)

Not much activity here on the forum I see.Looking at the scroll saws at the local Lowes storelately, I was pretty much disappointed. All they had were Porter Cable and Skill models, as I have to say that "not impressed" just doesn't cover it. Looking around online, I see that the Porter Cable models actually do get a few good reviews, so I was considering one of them. I decided to look at the Grizzly Tools site to see what they had to offer, and my eye kept being drawn to the Shop Fox model at the bottom of the page. Some more surfing found some pretty good reviews, and I found it on Amazon cheaper, with free shipping, so Mr UPS man is due to make a visit to my house on Tuesday. I know lots of folks here on the forum use a band saw for gear cutting, and I had a lot of fun making test gears with my little bandsaw, but the scroll saw just intruges me for some reason. Hopefully the new scroll saw will help me get motivated to start on a working clock. I have the MLT-13 plans from the magazine article, along with the correction pages, and still have the old Thomas Clock plans as mentioned before, I'll most likely start with one of those, after I work at least part of the way through the intro to scroll saw type book that I also ordered. It happens to have a project or two that include making wooden gears, so that should be a help.I plan to check in here now and then and post updates, though they might not be very frequent. Hopefully there are a few folks left checking in and we can get some discussion going.

Ok, so there's not much activity here, but heck, there's a lot of inspiration! I've been building wooden geared orreries for the past few years and have been contemplating a clock for a good while, and having seen some the bits on here I'm definately going to give one a go. I'm currently building a ludicrously complicated 2000 year old 60 geared monster (see my separate thread in general discussion), but once that is done I think a ludicrously complicated clock could well be on the cards. Can't wait!

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Sometimes, I think that the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe, is that none of it has ever tried to contact us...Calvin and Hobbs.

I know lots of folks here on the forum use a band saw for gear cutting, and I had a lot of fun making test gears with my little bandsaw, but the scroll saw just intruges me for some reason. Hopefully the new scroll saw will help me get motivated to start on a working clock.

I used a cheap scrollsaw myself, but experienced a lot of tearout on the back side of the plywood. I just dealt with it, and faced those sides to the back of the clock.

Recently, however, I came across this technique of making involute gear profiles, and have become enamored with it. The only problem is that my gear teeth are too close together for the table saw blades I have, but there should be some thin-kerf blades available. I don't have regular access to these tools, so I am just keeping mental notes on what to try once I start building again.

Recently, however, I came across this technique of making involute gear profiles, and have become enamored with it. The only problem is that my gear teeth are too close together for the table saw blades I have, but there should be some thin-kerf blades available. I don't have regular access to these tools, so I am just keeping mental notes on what to try once I start building again.

jasc15, you may be able to use a skilsaw blade in your table saw as a cheap way to get a really thin kerf. Many of the 6.5" to 7.25" diameter blades have a 5/8" hole size and blade widths around 0.07". I saw this on a woodworking site recently and the consensus was that it is safe. Table saws spin at a lower RPM than circular saws. You have to cut slower to make up for the lower RPMs and smaller blade diameter.

I am from Kidderminster, EnglandI have had a CNC router for a few years now and was looking for a new way of spending my time and came across Wooden clocks, I have downloaded some plans from Brian Law (DXF) and rareing to go,

Between Workshop time I will be trolling through these pages and getting good advice

Greetings group. My name is Kevin. Probably like most I found this forum while researching how to build wooden wheeled clocks. I've wanted to build one for years and I'm getting close to having the time to do it. I have purchased the clock kit from Woodline.com. Not sure how I'm going to like it but it looks like a good starter to get my feet wet. I have also purchased the PDF from Clayton Boyer's website on designing wooden wheeled clockworks. I've read enough of it to be dangerous.

I plan to mill around here and read up on as much info as I can.

In the beginning I had wanted to build an over the top large 2 and 3 foot wheels clock but I am finding out that, that is not necessarily possible.

Greetings group. My name is Kevin. Probably like most I found this forum while researching how to build wooden wheeled clocks. I've wanted to build one for years and I'm getting close to having the time to do it. I have purchased the clock kit from Woodline.com. Not sure how I'm going to like it but it looks like a good starter to get my feet wet. I have also purchased the PDF from Clayton Boyer's website on designing wooden wheeled clockworks. I've read enough of it to be dangerous.

I plan to mill around here and read up on as much info as I can.

In the beginning I had wanted to build an over the top large 2 and 3 foot wheels clock but I am finding out that, that is not necessarily possible.

I look forward to meeting all of you.

Kevin

Welcome to the forum Kevin. There is not a lot of real traffic after you filter out the spam, but I don't know of any other forums like this one. I keep checking in every few weeks or whenever I get bored at work.

I also have the Woodline clock kit. I really like the feedback you get when moving the wood through by hand. You can adjust the cut speed as the bit gets slightly dull based on feel. I also like the choices of plywood that they offer. I think they made a compromise in the design by using a 60 or 64 tooth gear for both the great wheel and the 2nd wheel. Most clock designs use a 64/8 ratio followed by a 60/8 set of gears between the escapement and the minute hand. The Woodline kit cannot be adapted to include a true second hand. It will be around 56 or 64 seconds per revolution. Also, the Woodline plans have wood against wood bearing surfaces. I am not that much of a purist and am willing to use steel arbors or even ball bearings to reduce friction.

You can certainly scale up any design to use larger wheels, but you have to change gear ratios or else keep the pendulum and escape wheel unchanged. I would finish a clock or two before making too many drastic changes.

Hey Steve great to see there is some life on the board. I assumed after I started looking around there was a heyday for this board and now isn't it. LOL... But... If I can get people with more knowledge than me to check in from time to time and answer my stupid questions it will be worth my effort. I love the looks of wood wheeled clocks. I know very little but I want to get to a point I can design my own.

Like I said I bought the Clayton Boyer PDF "A Practical Guide to Designing Wooden Wheeled Clockworks. I'm reading through it but I'm struggling a little bit with some of his math. Primarily understanding calculating Gear Ratios. I have however been able to get other equations translated into some formulas in Excel.

I have access to AutoCAD so I can accurately draw any wheel or pinion I just have to get my head around how to they are drawn. I kind of have my head around OD and PD. But I figure that will come the more I study other pdf's on escapements. I have found several. I don't know if any of them are any good but I figure reading them won't hurt.

I don't want to just build clocks from plans I buy online. I can't sell those. I want to learn how to design and create my own some day. So I hope over time this board and knowledge in it can get me there.

Kevin, how do you like the pdf from Clayton? I may purchase it just to help out a fellow clockmaker.

I designed a few gears for my CNC router by starting with a profile generated from http://woodgears.ca/gear_cutting/template.html It generated a gear with thousands of tiny segments per tooth. My CNC router took forever to cut because of the pauses between steps. I imported the shape of a single tooth into my cad program and estimated it with 2 or 3 arcs, then arrayed this radially to generate the complete gear. This cut gears much faster that were just as accurate. I still prefer the feedback from manually cutting gears with the Woodline kit, although you are limited to just the gear sizes in the kit.

I will check in more often if there are other active users. Thanks for joining KKC.

Kevin, how do you like the pdf from Clayton? I may purchase it just to help out a fellow clockmaker.

I designed a few gears for my CNC router by starting with a profile generated from http://woodgears.ca/gear_cutting/template.html It generated a gear with thousands of tiny segments per tooth. My CNC router took forever to cut because of the pauses between steps. I imported the shape of a single tooth into my cad program and estimated it with 2 or 3 arcs, then arrayed this radially to generate the complete gear. This cut gears much faster that were just as accurate. I still prefer the feedback from manually cutting gears with the Woodline kit, although you are limited to just the gear sizes in the kit.

I will check in more often if there are other active users. Thanks for joining KKC.

Steve

Oh Steve... You have a CNC? We are going to be such good friends... LOL... I have a ton of questions and thoughts about CNC. So be looking on the General Board for my CNC thread I'll be posting later and we can start a discussion there for all to see.

Now for your short line segments. In AutoCAD there is a command called "Pedit". Are you familiar with that command? You can select all the short little line segments and join them together into one polyline. At least in the eyes of CAD. I'm not sure how your CNC would see it. Give it a try and let me know whatcha get.

I drew my first wheel in AutoCAD yesterday. 60 teeth. I'm going to try to draw the matching pinion today. I'll let you know how that goes.

As far as Clayton's PDF I'm new at this so everything seems informative. Is it worth $42.00? I don't think so. I've been able to find a lot of free info online that kind of covers the same stuff. It's just explained differently. It does however go into how to draw the wheels. That's been helpful.

HiI use a cnc router to make my clocks.If I were starting out again I think I would use the method described at http://www.spiralsbysteve.com/gears.php.Steve sells an essay on his system for $20.This appears to me to be a gear generator using a circular table saw. At various times in my career I have been involved in gear cutting including a gear 3 meters diameter. They involve moving the gear blank side ways while rotating it.Model Engineer Magazine had a plan for a gear generator many years ago.If you are just starting out it might be worth a look at the table saw method.I will continue with the cnc router as I have it.

I have the article by spiralsbysteve. It is fairly decent and can sometimes be found when he has a sale for $15. It cuts properly formed gears along the pitch circle. The only thing I don't care for is that each tooth needs to be manually positioned before the start of each cut. This seems like the biggest source for errors.